US Republicans call for cut in aid to Cambodia

US Republicans are calling on Washington to cut off aid to Cambodia if Prime Minister Hun Sen returns to power at this month's election.

AFP: TANG CHHIN SOTHY

US Republicans are calling on Washington to cut off aid to Cambodia if Prime Minister Hun Sen returns to power at this month's election.

The chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs sub-committee on East Asia, Steve Chabot, says he has no doubt Hun Sen will win through the incitement of political violence, corruption and nepotism.

The US threat comes with polling less than two weeks away and with the news that exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy has been granted a royal pardon.

Leading democrat on the Foreign Affairs sub-committee, American Samoa's Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin, has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia singling out Cambodia would be the wrong thing to do to a country that the US has failed so miserably.